Theological Hermeneutics Research Articles

Pope Francis and Mercy: A Dynamic Theological Hermeneutic. Gill K.Goulding. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2023. Pp. 264. $65.00.

Pope Francis and Mercy: A Dynamic Theological Hermeneutic. Gill K.Goulding. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2023. Pp. 264. $65.00.

Deconstructing gendered glorification of charitable work: A case of women in Nomiya Church

Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), COVID-19 and Ebola have exposed the magnitude of care-related tasks on women. Most often, because of the gendered nature of domestic and reproductive roles, women are expected to assume unpaid care-related, nurturing and domestic work. Despite the valuable duties, women are economically poor and othered. These unpaid care duties are exacerbated by pandemics and ratified even further by religion. For instance, in Nomiya Church (NC), the first African independent church in Kenya, women’s experience narratives and biblical texts such as the story of the Proverbs 31 virtuous woman are used to glorify unpaid charitable work for women. Women’s virtuous personality, hard work and character are upheld in Christian spaces, thus obstructing sound work theologies. This article employed African Women’s theological lens in view of pointing out repressing and transformative tenets in charitable theologies of work for social and gender justice. While applying womanhood hermeneutics in the passage, the article points to valued behavioural postures of hard work in responding to God’s stewardship mandate. An affirmation of fair reward and accumulation of property is embraced as a familial complementary role, especially in pandemic contexts. The article amplifies the accumulation of property as a human right and the mandate of stewardship for all earth communities. Hence, charity work is a stewardship framework that all earth communities must engage in for replenishment and sustenance for all.Contribution: The article challenges literal biblical interpretations that glorify charity work. It advances a stewardship framework in understanding unpaid and charity work that all earth communities must engage in to replenish and sustain all creation. The framework affirms the dignity of all human persons through a transformational understanding of the theology of work as enabled by the African theological hermeneutics.

Hermeneutiek in de preekvoorbereiding

This article examines the relationship between preaching and from the perspective of sermon preparation. It proposes three layers of hermeneutical processes: ‘biblical hermeneutics’, ‘theological hermeneutics’, and ‘hermeneutics as resonance’. On a deeper level, resonance, an alternative to what Reformed homiletics called ‘application’, can process the insights of modernity and postmodernity. Dealing with the scriptural text during sermon preparation, resonance enables the preacher to focus upon a lived spirituality.

Creating and Sustaining an Ecofeminist Theological Hermeneutic in the Community of Pacific Women Scholars: An Interview with Elaine Wainwright

Creating and Sustaining an Ecofeminist Theological Hermeneutic in the Community of Pacific Women Scholars: An Interview with Elaine Wainwright

Ghana to Become a Majority Muslim Nation by 2096: A Critical Examination of Ghana’s 2000, 2010, 2021 Censuses and its Implications for Christian Missions

This study analysed Ghana’s demographic patterns as shown by the 2000, 2010, and 2021 censuses and considered how these trends may affect Christian missions. According to the analysis, Ghana’s Muslim population has been steadily increasing over time, and by the year 2096, it may have a Muslim majority. Christian mission organisations working in Ghana must reevaluate their methods and approaches in order to effectively interact with and minister to a shifting religious landscape as a result of this probable demographic upheaval. The study also investigated the probable effects of a Muslim majority in Ghana and discussed the consequences for Christian missionary work, emphasising the need for cultural sensitivity, interfaith communication, and contextualised approaches to engage with the diverse religious beliefs and practices of Ghanaians. This study further examined what this demographic trend suggests and its implication for evangelism and intentional Christlike disciple making if a reversal is to be envisaged. The thesis statement of the paper is that Islam in Ghana unlike Christianity is witnessing steady growth, and the Church is enjoined by her calling to make Christlike disciples for her future survival. This article belongs to the field of missiology. It employed a transdisciplinary approach that incorporated statistical hermeneutics, hermeneutics of comparative theology, history of religion and demography to interpret quantitative results and determine their place and meaning in the religious landscape and their implications for Christian Mission. Keywords: Christian mission, Islamic growth, population census, Disciple-Making.

Praying through the Lord’s Prayer with Meaning and Significance: Mother-tongue Theological Hermeneutical Study of Mathew 6:9-13

The Lord’s Prayer seems to be the best-known prayer among Christian communities. In liturgical contexts, it appears to be the most memorized and recited text of the New Testament. The popularity of the Lord’s Prayer, on one hand, indicates its significance within Christianity. On the other hand, its popularity implies that many people recite it without reflecting on its theological meaning and significance. The main purpose of this work was to read the Matthean text of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) from the perspective of the Akan mother-tongue theological hermeneutics. The paper thus joins with a contemporary few selected voices in the African exegetical enterprise to suggest that a mother-tongue theological hermeneutical reading of scripture contributes to an enhanced understanding of biblical texts which is of ecumenical relevance in the contemporary glocal (global and local) contexts. Keywords: The Lord’s Prayer, Mother-tongue, Theological Hermeneutics, Akan, Matthew 6:9-13

Divine Design and the Creation-Evolution Debate as Questions for Christian-Muslim Dialogue

ABSTRACT Inter-religious discussion on science and religion can help focus on neglected theological and metaphysical aspects. Here, I consider two examples of this: (1) the effect of models of divine action on design arguments, and (2) the effect of theological hermeneutics on the creation-evolution debate. Regarding design arguments, I analyze and respond to Shoaib A. Malik’s four Ashʿari criticisms of the design argument. Regarding theological hermeneutics, and building on Malik’s analysis, I use the debates over the Age of the Earth and the Flood as a test case of the differences between Christian and Muslim ways of interpretation.

Mother-Tongue Theological Hermeneutics: In Search of Relevant Glocal Interpretation of Scripture

In the attempt to creatively bring the complex multi-religious (Judeo-Christian) scripture to bear on both the contemporary global and local Christian communities, a formulation of a relevant hermeneutical method becomes imperative. The reason is that in a globalised world, there is a tendency for a dominant culture to designate the interpretative approach that comes from a minor culture as only “contextually” relevant. The question that comes to mind is: Could there be an academic reflection in the interpretative process that is faithful to both the global and local contexts? This paper demonstrates the quest for such a relevant hermeneutical approach that could also be used to re-read biblical texts by introducing mother-tongue theological hermeneutics. This approach, understood and utilized, would therefore serve as a hermeneutical approach that bridges the gap between global and local perspectives on a biblical text. Keywords: Mother-tongue, theological hermeneutics, Glocal, Scripture

Reading The Bible, Ecologically: Re-Imagining Our Theological Hermeneutics

Commencing with a personal prelude to ecological biblical hermeneutics and inspired by a prophetic call of Pope Francis, the present paper outlines how in times of profound crisis, the need to choose what counts is urgent. With recourse to the same model of crisis and choice, a brief overview of some of the salient eco-biblical proposals is presented which then sets the stage for the author’s eco-hermeneutical reading of Isaiah 34-35, which brings to the fore the prophetic portrayal wherein otherwise marginal/ized earth-companions meaningfully show similarity with the cherished Israelite traditions and theological visions.

On Theological Aporias

Modern theology has attended explicitly to issues concerning method, that is, how theological authors creatively offer interpretations that advance disciplinary knowledge. This article explores the role of aporias—logical impasses—in theological interpretation. After considering two philosophical paths for negotiating the aporia in the work of Nicholas Rescher and Jacques Derrida, it applies these interpretive paradigms to what it calls the central Christian aporia. It argues that mindfulness about the role of aporias in theological method enhances appreciation for the complexity of theological hermeneutics.

Mosaic Tiles: Comparative Theological Hermeneutics and Christian-Jewish Dialogue About the Land

the purpose of this article is to outline an approach for religious bodies to dialogue between Christians and Jews within the North American context. This approach contains some hermeneutic keys of contemporary comparative theological work in the academic field. However, it is suitable for the practical work done within the settings of Jewish-Christian dialogue. To achieve this purpose, this article will unfold in three steps. First, it outlines what I would call "mosaic tiles" of ideologies around Israel that do not translate well into the ideologies of other dialogue partners. The second step involves outlining some key characteristics of the hermeneutics of comparative theology, especially its emphasis on textuality, hermeneutic openness, and humility. In the third and final step, I engage these three hermeneutic characteristics by applying them to the topic of the Land in Christian-Jewish dialogue.

ПОНИМАНИЕ И ПРЕДПОНИМАНИЕ В ТЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ГЕРМЕНЕВТИКЕ

The article provides a comparative analysis for the interpretation of theological hermeneutics in the works of Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann. The author considers the specifics in their understanding of the purpose and tasks of theological hermeneutics, its relationship with philosophical hermeneutics, the issues of preunderstanding and the hermeneutic circle. Barth’s hermeneutics is part of dogmatics; the hermeneutic question is the question of how we can adequately speak of God’s revelation in history. God must never become the object of our interpretations, but must always remain the subject who interprets us. Barth’s hermeneutics is characterized by a preliminary comprehension of the theological meaning of the Bible, which for him is the “otherness” of God. Bultmann sought to develop an adequate description of the human situation in which biblical texts are able to speak to us, tried to clarify preunderstanding, the formal conditions for the process of biblical interpretation. Since all human knowledge of God is interpreted knowledge, the theologian who reflects on that process of interpretation needs to reflect on the conceptual framework in which he is interpreting. For Bultmann, unlike Barthes, an open discussion in the presuppositions of any approach to texts should not be seen as determination of our understanding of those texts

Translating the Symbols of Triduum

The aim of this paper is to apply tools of cognitive poetics for exploring poetics of religious hymns in the mentality of contemporary Polish, Ukrainian and English speakers. The texts under study are hymns from Triduum which is a very special time within Roman Catholic Passiontide. The Latin originals as well as Polish, Ukrainian and English translations are used to show how conceptual imagery transforms in the perceptive process, which is located between the ancient text and today’s views. The process is even more complicated when these texts are interpreted by Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers. Although the biblical prototexts remain the same, the rite has elaborated their own theological hermeneutics which mostly coincide with the primary sacred language, i.e. Latin. It is also interesting to testify if a language, whose nation has mostly belonged to a different Christian – liturgical and theological – tradition, can recode all semantic features and values.

DOGMATIC EQUIVALENCE: A KEY TO LITURGICAL TRANSLATION?

The article presents the fundamentals of liturgical translation in search for the core of this partial translation theory. Liturgical texts are known to combine three dimensions of religious discourse: semantics (especially dogmatic exegesis), poetics (the specifi c poetics of original Hebrew and Greek texts) and performability (covering particular features of aural perception). The history of investigating liturgical translation counts at least a century. Exactly 100 years ago, Ukrainian researcher Ivan Ohiyenko published a seminal paper whose issues and ideas were repeated and reverberated in most further studies which directly and specifi cally dealt with biblical phrasing cited in the Liturgy, doctrinal correctness and ideological infl uences, matters of interpretative and temporal retranslations, the problem of the correlation between the poetics of the original languages and that of the target language, relevant sound and music qualities of the text. Linguistic patterns and theological hermeneutics shape a special type of equivalence which is applicable to texts for liturgical use – dogmatic equivalence, which can be viewed from four perspectives: terminological essence; lexical or cultural ortheological interpretation; grammatical meaningfulness; phonetic means for theological interpretation and liturgical performability. It is a diffi cult task to keep a proper balance between the attitude of linguists (who concentrate on relations between a sacred text and a reading community) and that of theologians (who stress on the authoritative status of a sacred text although overlook cultural historicity). Thus, dogmatic equivalence is a structural phenomenon which can be divided into diff erent levels, components or dimensions. The interconnection of translation problems will have to deploy the approbated solutions from sci-tech, poetry and literary translation. The revoiltinary principle which is to be acknowledged properly is that even liturgical translation can benefi t from linguistic experimenting. Key words: translation theory, liturgical translation, interpretation, equivalence, cultural norms.

Hoe God aanwezig is in het werk van Maarten ’t Hart

Maarten ’t Hart is widely regarded as the prototypical Dutch author who has left his Orthodox Reformed background behind. Yet religion is present throughout his work. In her dissertation Religion im Werk von Maarten ’t Hart (2022), German theologian Christina Bickel describes the playful manners in which ’t Hart deals with religion as an inspiring way to open the mind of modern man to transcedental reflections. Her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, theological hermeneutics and homiletics, offers a surprising example of the reception of a Dutch author within a foreign cultural context.

Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology by Michael Fishbane

Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology by Michael Fishbane

Two Stigmatas in Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy

Abstract: Criticism on Ron Hansen's Mariette in Ecstasy has, with little hesitation and only one exception, readily accepted the veracity of Mariette's stigmata. Hansen, however, claims to have written the novel to support both belief and unbelief. Employing psychoanalytic and Foucauldian principles, this article demonstrates the subtle ways with which Hansen consistently provides alternative naturalistic explanation when depicting the supernatural. It argues that Hansen sows seeds of ambiguity not to produce doubt, but to offer a unique theological hermeneutics: he positions his text, as well as Mariette, as a stigmatic—willingly accepting the wounds of suspicious reading to create a more grace-infused sacramental text.

The Post-Traditional Ontology and Hermeneutics of Congar's Theology of History

AbstractYves Congar's impressive theology of tradition is, rather paradoxically, a post-traditional attempt to rediscover, conceptualize, and account for tradition. A critical element of Congar's post-traditional work on tradition is his retrieval of a ‘Thomistic’ theology of history. This article explores the ontology and hermeneutics of Congar's theology of history, focusing in particular on some of the dynamics and internal tensions of Congar's mediation of Thomistic sacra doctrina to distinctively modern theological questions. I first discuss Congar's hermeneutics of reception, with particular attention to the influence of Marie-Dominique Chenu. Second, I sketch the main features of Congar's theology of history, with particular attention paid to how it is informed by his ressourcement reading of Thomas. By way of conclusion, I offer an appraisal of and critical response to Congar's post-traditional hermeneutics and ontology of history

Hiring labourers for the vineyard and making sense of God’s grace at work: An empirical investigation in hermeneutical theory and ordinary theology

The Matthean parable of the labourers in the vineyard is open to multiple interpretations. For some, the parable may speak of God’s unlimited grace and generosity; for others the parable may speak of God’s unfairness. The present study is set within the context of an emerging interest in the concept of grace as a topic for empirical enquiry. The study draws on the theoretical framework provided by the notion of ordinary theology and employs the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics, which is rooted in Jungian psychological type theory. Data were drawn from two one-day workshops with Church of England Readers (lay ministers). On each occasion the participants were divided into three separate groups according to their preferences for thinking or feeling (the two judging functions proposed by psychological type theory) and within these groups they were invited to explore the messages about grace in Matthew 20:1–15 (Jesus’ parable of the labourers in the vineyard). The rich data gathered from these workshops generated insights into contemporary theologies of grace and also confirmed the hypothesis that a biblical interpretation of grace is shaped by the reader’s psychological type preference for thinking or feeling. While feeling types tended to empathise, thinking types pondered motives and unfairness.Contribution: Situated within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, the SIFT method is concerned with identifying the influence of the psychological type of the reader in shaping the interpretation of sacred text. Employing this method, the present study contributes to three fields of scholarship: to the field of homiletics and hermeneutics, to the field of ordinary theology and to the emerging field concerned with the concept of grace as a topic for empirical enquiry.

The Resurrection in the Work of Klaus Berger

This article offers selected thoughts of the recently deceased New Testament scholar Klaus Berger (1940–2020). In the first part of the text, I will introduce some of his systematising theses concerning the theme of Easter. I will first present three critical suggestions on the topic under discussion and then give space to an equal number of his positive statements. In the second part of the text, I will introduce the original interpretation of 1 Cor. 15 as found in Berger’s monumental work Kommentar zum Neuem Testament. Berger’s interpretation of 1 Cor. 15 will thus complement the reflection on Easter themes as presented in his confrontation-oriented attempt Bibelfälscher from 2013. In conclusion, we will attempt to place the aforesaid within the broad framework of Berger’s historical, biblical, and theological hermeneutics.